By José Antonio Ocampo, Joseph E. Stiglitz, and Jayati Ghosh
Dear Mr. President,
The world has welcomed your election and your commitment to restore diplomatic engagement with the international community to the center of US foreign policy. By rallying governments to create the conditions for a fair and environmentally sustainable global economic recovery, your leadership can encourage transformational change.
For too long, international organizations have failed to deal with one of the most toxic aspects of globalization: tax avoidance and avoidance by multinational corporations. International companies need fair taxation to create the kind of societies we aspire to, and must be at the heart of any progressive tax system aimed at driving economic growth and creating high standards of living for all. Ending corporate tax avoidance is also one of the best ways to tackle the wealth inequality of wealth and income.
By shifting their profits to tax havens, big companies are depriving governments around the world of at least $ 240 billion a year in fiscal revenue. This deficit affects not only the United States, where about 50% of the foreign profits made by US multinationals are transferred to tax havens each year, but also to the South- wide, where revenue sources are more limited and therefore rely on corporate tax receipts to fund the public. more services.